"Conservative German Baptist Brethren is a small Brethren body which dates to the 1930 withdrawl of a group under the leadership of Clayton F. Weaver and Ervin J. Keeny from the Dunkard Brethren Church in Pennsylvania... Membership: In 1980... had two congregations, one in New Madison, Ohio, with ten members and one in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, with twenty-five members. "

"A census by the Religious Dept. of the Canadian Jewish Congress indicates 53 of the synagogues are Orthodox, 43 are Conservative, 14 are Reform and two are Reconstructionist. "

Conservative Judaism

North America

2,240,000

-

-

-

1986

Noss., David S. & John B. Noss. A History of the World's Religions. Macmillian (1990).; pg. 440.

"One study completed in 1986 found that 10 percent of Jews surveyed described themselves as Orthodox, 32 percent as Conservative, 23 percent as Reform, and 35% as "just Jewish. " I combined this percentage with the 7 million Jews in North America figure.

"MEMBERSHIP: The United Synagogue represents over 800 Conservative congregations throughout North America and is closely associated with the Masorti Movement in Israel. Some 2 million Jews identify with Conservative Judaism, making it the largest branch of the Jewish faith. "

"There are approximately 6,000 Jews in Middle Tennessee who comprise four Jewish congregations, one Orthodox, one Conservative, two Reform, and a Jewish day school. "

Conservative Judaism

USA

300,000

-

-

-

1935

Hertzberg, Arthur. The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History; New York: Simon & Schuster (1989); pg. 279.

"In 1935 a reasonably reliable estimate showed a million Jews who identified themselves as Orthodox. The Conservative synagogues, the newest denomination, claimed 300,000, and Reform had only 200,000. "

"Jewish statistics demonstrating this 'Jewish revival' are as unreliable as any other privately collected statistics. Nevertheless, even viewed critically, the changes shown by the figures are impressive. Conservativism, which claimed 250 synagogues and 75,000 member families in 1937, claimed over 500 synagogues and 75,000 member families in 1956.

Conservative Judaism

USA

-

-

200units

-

1945

Hertzberg, Arthur. The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History; New York: Simon & Schuster (1989); pg. 328.

"By... 1953, among the Conservatives alone, the membership of the United Synagogue, their association of congregations, had risen from less than 200 in 1945 to 443 congregations. "

Conservative Judaism

USA

-

-

500units

-

1952

Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People; Yale University Press: New Haven & London (1973); pg. 977.

"A half-century after Schechter's arrival in the United States [in 1902], Conservatism embraced 450 rabbis and over five hundred synagogues. "

Conservative Judaism

USA

-

-

443units

-

1953

Hertzberg, Arthur. The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History; New York: Simon & Schuster (1989); pg. 328.

"By... 1953, among the Conservatives alone, the membership of the United Synagogue, their association of congregations, had risen from less than 200 in 1945 to 443 congregations. "

"Figures for the three 'denominations' in American Jewry are no more precise. In 1953-54 Reform claimed 461 congregations, conservatives 473, and American Orthodoxy 720, with an uncertain number, mostly of the older Orthodoxy, unaffiliated. "

"Jewish statistics demonstrating this 'Jewish revival' are as unreliable as any other privately collected statistics. Nevertheless, even viewed critically, the changes shown by the figures are impressive. Conservativism, which claimed 250 synagogues and 75,000 member families in 1937, claimed over 500 synagogues and 75,000 member families in 1956.

Conservative Judaism

USA

1,000,000

-

600units

-

1957

Welles, Sam. The World's Great Religions, New York: Time Incorporated (1957); pg. 148.

"The Conservatives (United Synagogue of America) attempt to make Orthodoxy compatible with modern life. In the 600 Conservative congregations with approximately one million members... "

*LINK* web page: "A REVIEW OF DATA ON JEWISH-AMERICANS " (1998) [Orig. source: Feldstein, Donald. The American Jewish Community in the 21st Century - A Projection. New York, NY: American Jewish Congress (March 1984)]

"In 1983, there were 5,728,000 persons who identified themselves as Jews in the U.S., comprising 2.4 percent of the population... 26% of Jews today identify themselves as Reform; 36% as Conservative; 6% as Orthodox; and 32% are not affiliated. "

"Identification with Conservative Judaism continues at a high level in evry Jewish community... In some cities, such as Philadelphia and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Conservatism has maintained formidlbe strength: in the mid-1980s, 53% of Jews in Minneapolis, 55% of Jews in St. Paul, and 41% of Jews in Philadelphia identified with Conservative Judaism. It also holds the allegiance of a high percentage of Jews in the Sunbelt communities... such as southern Florida, and in burgeoning communities, such as Atlanta. "

16% of U.S. Jews are Orthodox; 43% Conservative; 35% Reform; 6% Recons. or none (Figures refer to Core Jews (the 5,500,000 religious and nominally religious Jews, out of total 6,840,000 "Jewish Identified Population ", or total Jews including merely ethnic.)

Crim, Keith (ed.). The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. San Francisco: Harper Collins (1989). Reprint; originally pub. as Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, 1981; pg. 193.

"Conservative Judaism is, at present, the largest of the three main groupings in American Judaism and has established branches in Israel and Latin America. The movement's center is the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City... "

"Conservative Judaism: The form of the Jewish religion that occupies the middle ground between Orthodox and Reform Judaism, with its centre in the United States, where it is the largest of the three movements, and with adherents in other parts of the world. The main institution for the training of Conservative Rabbis is the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, with branches in Los Angeles and Jerusalem. Conservative Judaism, published as a quarterly in New York, is the house organ of the movement. Conservative Rabbis are organized in the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Rabbis, the RAC, which meets annually in conference, publishing the proceedings in Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly. "

"Conservative Judaism: ...The two key thinkers of Conservative Judaism are Zachariah Frankel and Solomon Schechter; the former describes his religious position as that of 'positive historic Judaism', the latter stresses the idea of 'Catholic Israel,' that the ultimate seat of authority in Judaism resides in the consensus of the Jewish people as a whole on the meaning of Judaism... Despite wide divergences and pluralistic tendencies, all Conservative congregations agree in affirming the basic institutions of traditional Judaism--observance of the Sabbath and festivals, the dietary laws, circumcision, daily prayer, marriage and divorce, conversion in accordance with Jewish law, the centrality of Hebrew in the synagogue service, and, above all, the study of the Torah as a high religious obligation. "

"In 1937-38 the synagogue... represented a minority of the American Jews. The American Jewish Year Book estimated that Reform congregations in that year had 50,000 members, Conservative congregations 75,000 members... "

Conservative Judaism - affiliated

USA

1,200,000

-

-

-

1957

Welles, Sam. The World's Great Religions, New York: Time Incorporated (1957); pg. 148.

"Among the approximately four million U.S. synagogue members (out of a total U.S. Jewish population of 5.2 million), some 40% are Orthodox, 30% Conservative and 30% Reform. "

"Synagogue attendance twelve or more times annually is claimed by 55% of self-identified Orthodox Jews, 21% of Conservatives, and 12% of self-proclaimed Reform Jews. By contrast, 45% of the Orthodox claimed to attend synagogue once or more a week, compared with only 8% of Jews who identified themselves as Conservative and 2.5% who identified as Reform. "

"Synagogue attendance twelve or more times annually is claimed by 55% of self-identified Orthodox Jews, 21% of Conservatives, and 12% of self-proclaimed Reform Jews. By contrast, 45% of the Orthodox claimed to attend synagogue once or more a week, compared with only 8% of Jews who identified themselves as Conservative and 2.5% who identified as Reform. "

"Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario... Bishops Moses H. Roth and Curtis C. Cressman became the spokespersons of the traditionalist position. They and the ministers and congregatoins which followed them were expelled in 1959, whereupon they formed the Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario... Membership: In the 1970s there were 8 congregations with less than 300 members. "

"...Mifflin County in central Pennsylvania. This region encompasses Kishacoquillas Valley..., which has in it 12 Amish-related groups. All originated in whole or in part among the Amish who came to this region from southeastern Pennsylvania as early as 1791... The Locust Grove or Conservative Mennonite Church was organized in 1898 under the leadership of Bishop Abraham D. Zook by members of the Allensville and Belleville meeting-house churches who felt the change in their community was taking place too rapidly. The congregation is affiliated with the Conservative Mennonite Conference, but the styles of dress that once distinguished it from the Allensville or Maple Grove Mennonite churches no longer prevail... Many of the group's young people, like those of other Mennonite congregations in the area, attend college. "

"Conservative Mennonite Conference.... Grantsville, MD [H.Q.]... After the establishment of the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church, more liberal Amish gradually began to separate from the church. Some of these congregations became associated and, in 1910, met at Pigeon, Michigan, for a first general conference. These congregations took the name Conservative Mennonite Conference... Conservative Mennonites are located primarily in the Midwest, but congregations are locateed as far away as Florida, Arizona, and Delaware. "

"Conservative Mennonite Fellowship (non-conference)... Hartville, OH... The Conservativ Mennonite Fellowship (nonconference) was the result of a protest in the main branches of the Mennonite Church in the mid-1950s. The conservatives were concerned that... Membership: Not reported. In 1967 there were 23 congregations with 980 members and an additional 50 cooperating congregations with 2,400 members. "

"Within two years they [i.e., the remaining Wesleyan Church] too had split, to create yet another Methodist congregation, the Church of Tonga. The three groups have remained apart ever since. They became four in 1986, with the founding of the Constitutional Free Church of Tonga. " [Apparently the "Constitutional Free Church of Tonga " is a distinct name of the "Free Church of Tonga, " which is what the dissenting Wesleyan Church became known as.]

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